Jess Wynn, to do the impossible

[CoachC]

Inheriting some guys that can play and knowing what to do with them goes a long way. You sure as hell are having a better year than Gary Winston did his first season at Gardner-Webb. Going forward though you may have to hire better assistants than you usually do, especially the recruiting assistant.

[Wayne23]

Oh yeah, I want to spend $ on the recruiting assistant and go cheap on the other two.

[Wayne23]

IUPU-Indianapolis is in. They are 9-14, 5-9. We beat them by 19 there. They’ve lost 3 of 4. We won the last one inside, +17 RB.

2/13: We plain handcuffed them in the first half. It was 19-7 with 8:23 to go. 32-17 at the half.

Some foul trouble late in the second for both Clerq and Bick, but it was too late to matter. They never threatened us. 67-50 at the end.

We shot 50% and held them to 31.5%.

17, 4, 2, 2, 1 for Clerq, 14, 3 and great D for Pohl who has responded really well to starting. 9, 6, 7, 2, 2 for Bick. I feel like I’ve found a productive starting five at last.

3 games to play and four teams bunched within a game of each other at the top, Western Ill. has joined the club.

At UMKC, 9-15, 5-10. We won by only 3 at home so we’re taking this seriously. They’re 2-2 since losing 6 in a row. Starting SF is lost with a torn MCL. We feel like if we play our game we should be okay. Dad reminds me there’s a real danger in playing “easy” teams on the road. I’ve been hammering this home all week.

2/16: I suppose we could have played worse but I’m not sure how. 18 TOs, shot 31%, Tre played 16 due to fouls, Clerq was 4-15. On the plus side Pohl had 8 and 10- yeah, that’s about it. Oh the score? 49-63.

Log jam at the top with ORU in the catbird seat and the other three of us battling for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Dad says to give them a full day off, lock the gym. I do it.

[Wayne23]

11-14, 6-10 Oakland is in for our last regular season home game. The athletic department is pulling out all the stops for a sellout. It would be the first in more than six years. Truck has been great all season and I let him know I appreciate it.

We beat Oakland by only three there on a tough night. Their best player is sitting due to grades. No excuses, this is a team we should beat easily, especially at home.

2/23: As I enter the arena I can’t tell if it’s a complete sell out but I’ve never seen so many people in this place and they are loud and enthusiastic. I can tell the crowd has my guys pumped.

We come out showing how pumped we are. 24-5 at the first break, 14:22. We keep playing hard and go into the locker up by 45-24.

We keep it going in the 2nd half and win going away, 80-44. I play everybody.

+18 RB, +6 TO (6). 20 and 16 for Tre, a HUGE game. 13, 5, 3 for Clerq, 10, 6, 3, 2, 2 for Fox, 6, 1, 6 for Bick, 8, 4, 2, 2 blocks for Pohl, and great bench play. Oh, yep, it was a sellout!

One game to go and we’re alone in 2nd.

At 6-20, 4-13 South Dakota. A win will give us 2nd place and a loss could drop us. Beat them by 16 at home. They’ve lost 4 of 5. We should be able to beat these guys and we definitely need to.

2/23: We continue the play we showed last game and explode out to a 13 point lead at the first break. Bick gets in early foul trouble. It doesn’t slow us down. 42-25 at the half.

Bick continues to be in foul trouble throughout the second, fouling out with only 16 minutes played. Price devours their C. Final score is 64-51 but it wasn’t that close.
+22 RB, -5 TO (20, which did NOT please me, maybe the only thing that didn’t).

15, 12, 5, 1 for Price, who just seems to get better and better; too bad he’s a senior. 13, 6, 6, 1 for Clerq who will be back next year. Good work by Fox and Pohl and help from the bench.

We end the regular season at 18-9, 14-4, in sole possession of 2nd place. Beyond my wildest dreams.

[Wayne23]

A week until our first playoff game. Dad says to give the guys another day off and to take it easy for the next two. He explains all the good reasons why and I agreed. He says he’s flying to Tulsa for the tourney and he’ll be there the day before the first game, in time for our practice that day. Great news!

It is frustrating the hell out of me that no recruits will talk to me. Not a one has done so all season. Now I’m after guys who hit 800, 820 on SATs and they won’t talk either.

Dad arrives and helps with practice. He sits beside me at the play in games. Crazy set up for the tourney, the top 3 get a bye and the regular season winner gets the first two rounds off. Crazy is the word.

UMKC upsets Oakland and we’ll play them. They’re 11-17, finished 8th. We beat them by 3 and then by 14. This is a game we should win.

3/2: Biggest game of the season and we completely choke on it. Down 14, 12:38. We simply cannot make a shot. It gets better from there, down 24-18 at the half. 18!

We scored 5 free throws, 3 threes, and 2 twos in the 1st half. Clerq had 12 and the rest of the team had 6. I emphasize that we are only down 6, that this game is ours for the taking. Just keep playing the D we’re playing and make some shots.

We don’t really do either. Down 14 again, 13:56. Down 11, 6:22. Down 14, 3:01. We never made a run at them. 51-62 at the end. It wasn’t worth Dad’s plane fare.

19, 11, 2, 1, 2 for Clerq and the less said the better after that.

We’ll fly back home and keep practicing, just in case, but I’m not confident that we’ll get an invitation anywhere even though our RPI is #63. 9 days to wait. I say goodbye to Dad and thank him for the help.

I watch the rest of the tourney on satellite.

3/3: ORU and No. Dak. ST will meet in the final.

3/4: ORU by 4.

We fall to #81 in RPI so I’m all but certain our season is over. We keep practicing anyway.

[Wayne23]

3/12: We’re in the CHI! Everyone is jumping for joy and Dad is flying to the tourney. 16 teams, we’re a #2 seed. We play East Tennessee State in the first round. They were 18-10, 14-4 in the Atlantic Sun. Like us, they lost in the first round. They give up points. They’re a decent team. We’ll need to play well. My guys are determined to look better than they did in the conf. tourney game.

3/13: No. Dak. ST loses in the first round of the NIT.

3/14: Off to a great start, up 11, 13:39. #2 on Bick, 1:27, up 14. Robin is doing a great job filling in for Bick, up 21, 2:19. 42-25 at the half. Clerq is on fire, 7 threes.

Up 21, 14:44. Up 19, 7:21. 75-56 at the end. We had this one all the way.

+5 RB, +3 TO (10). 35, 6, 3 for Clerq, 11 threes. 9, 7, 2 for Fox, 9, 6 for Pohl, 7, 3, 2, 1 for Robin. One win away from a 20 win season.

ORU wins in the first round of the NCAA.

PG Lance Henry commits to us. Amazing, he never returned a phone call. We can do visits and we visit our other four that we offered to.

3/19: ORU loses in the 2nd round so we’re the last conference team playing.

Next is Alcorn ST, 18-13, 9-9., from the Southwestern where they finished 7th, lost in the semifinals. Lost 4 of their last 6. They don’t play great D. They get their points outside. We’re wearing the whites but we’ll need to stop their outside shooting. Dad works the guards on D during practices.

3/22: We go down 7 at 14:44. It gets worse, down 13, 6:22. I call my use it or lose it, yell a lot, which is unusual for me, go to man and raise the level to 8 and remind the guys it’s win or go home. We cut into their lead, down 6, 3:44. 35-37 at the half.

In the locker room I tell the guys we’re going to win this one. The other team gave us their best shot, we took it and came back. I’m not usually big on motivational speeches but I use one this time. I send them out charged up.

We come out on fire and soon are up by 8, 15:52. Up 15, 10:33. Up 10, 6:22. We don’t allow them a run, up 12, 2:18 and we take the air out. 80-71 at the end.

+12 RB, +3 TO (12). Wse let them shoot 48.1% but that was the only down side. 20, 3, 3, 1, 1 for Clerq, 13, 6, 4 for Bick, 13, 6, 3 for Price, 10, 8, 1 for Pohl. Fox battled fouls and played only 21, but had 5, 6, 4, 2. The bench kicked in with 19.

A 20 win season!

In the semifinals it’s Saint Louis, 18-14, 10-6, finished 3rd in the Atlantic 10, lost in the semis. Won 9 of their last 10. They play D and the A 10 is much stronger than our conf. This will be a challenge.

3/27: They go up by 6, 15:57. It’s 9, 11:22. At the media break I tell my guys we aren’t playing badly, we just aren’t switching quickly enough on D.

We go back out and cut their lead to 4, 5:37. It’s 37-39 at the half.

I tell my guys we’re giving up too many open looks. Dad diagrams some defensive adjustments and we tell them Clerq’s been open and hasn’t gotten the ball. We want to feed him and when they adjust, go inside to Price. But the key is D and we hit that again before they go back out.

And once again we go on a run to start the 2nd half, up 7, 14:48. We extend it to 18, 7:29. They aren’t catching us, it’s 20, 3:37. The final is 75-57 and we’ll play for the title!

+10 RBs, -5 TOs, but only 12. We hold them to 32.1% shooting, 23% in the 2nd half.

25, 4, 2, 1 for Clerq, 13, 3, 5 for Bick, 10, 10, 3 for Price, 11 for Joel from the bench. The magical season will end in a battle for a championship.

We’ll play 20-12, 11-5 Howard, from the Mid-Eastern AC. They lost in the first round of their tourney and were 4-3 in their last 7. Their PG may not play, he hurt his shoulder in their last game. They have a backup guard out as well. Their 2, who may play PG, gets 18.6 per. They can play but if we play our A game I think we can win this. Dad has been a huge help. My guys are ready.

3/29: The first half is a war, 9 lead changes, nobody leads by more than 4. We go in down 28-30. We’re stopping their PG but their 2 is going off. Our biggest problem is that we’re throwing the ball away far too often, 12 TOs.

We make an adjustment on D and talk about taking care of the ball.

We grab a quick 2 point lead, 18:11.

And then it all goes to hell. 5 straight TOs, then four missed shots, and we’re down 13, 13:18. We go man, level 9. Down 17, 9:39, as the TOs continue. D is at level 10, down 11, 6:31.

Down 5, 4:33, then 3 TOs in a row and we’re down 11, 3:07. We press every time down but we can’t catch them, 56-65 at the end.

+5 RB but a horrible 27 TOs. Howard forced a lot of those with tough D but we were just plain sloppy tonight. We allowed them 16 more shots than we took and that was the difference.

19, 6, 2, but 7 TOs for Clerq, 15, 10, 2, 1, 2 for Price in his last game, we’ll miss him. 9, 5, 6, 1, 1 for Bick and he’ll be missed as well. Fox and Pohl, who did so much for us once I put them in the starting lineup, are also graduating.

It was a far, far better season than I could possibly have imagined, 21-11.

[CoachC]

Postseason in the first year, that's pretty damn successful!

[Wayne23]

Again, no idea how we did this well. Next year?

[Wayne23]

Dad and I chat for a long time back at the hotel. He is very supportive and congratulates me on an outstanding first season. He was a huge help, being there for me all season long. All of the phone calls and emails, and the trips he made here were a great part of our success.

Total Sports Magazine
March 30
The Boy Wonder by Wright Page

Well this brainstorm didn’t turn out to be such a success. While we maintain that a name should not grant a shortcut to a head coaching job we are forced to admit that young Jess Wynn was a great success in his first year at SDSU. No one predicted anywhere near 21 wins for this small school in its first year in Div. I. We leave “lovely” South Dakota but we’ll be keeping an eye on this young coach. We predict he will go far in the years ahead, and if he’s lucky, far from South Dakota, as soon as possible!

Jess Wynn’s journal, continued:

Back home. Seems like I’ve barely seen Ellie for the past month. She followed us on TV and we have a long chat about hoops when we finally do get together, Over the next few weeks we make up for lost time and are together often.

I won’t get to the final four this year, it isn’t in the budget.

Kansas will meet Georgia Tech in the title game.

4/3: Kansas wins the title in OT.

4/4: Awards: Clerq and Price make first team in conf. I thought Bick might make 2nd, but no.

4/9: Our Team Prestige is up to 10, big jump!

My ratings go up, Offense is 3, Defense 5, Recruiting 2, Scouting 1, Player Development 4 and Reputation 7. I get no job offers, not even as an assistant. Not a surprise. I do get a $4000 raise.

I promote Mel Davis to #1 assistant as my other two decide to leave. Mel has become a good and trusted friend. He has two years to go on his contract. He’ll stay as my bench/practice coach.

4/16: I hope to roll the dice and go for a decent recruiting assistant, hoping we’ll get a budget increase. We certainly brought in lots more money with the big increase in attendance.

We sign recruit, SF Rod Boozer.

I sign Charlie Johnson as my #2. He’ll recruit. I really like this guy. I think he’ll help us.

Andy Gray decides to come back. He’ll be my Scouting coach this year.

4/23: We sign PG Josh Slaughter. We need $. Hoping Truck will see it that way. We get $4,000. I’ll take it.

I really couldn’t have asked for a better first season. Truck and I talk for a long time about the future. Both of us are ambitious, so we may not be together for long, but we have a great relationship.

I decide to fly home to CT for a few days.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Back for season 2. It will be extremely difficult to match what we did last year.

We buy the Great Plains Gold and the National Basic reports.

6/5: We decide to go for a couple of transfers with low GPA.

6/15: We get SG, Josh Rein, a 3 ½ star Soph with 5 star potential, and Win River, who may be a bust. He’s a C.

6/25: Only one scholarship to fill so going to Houston, Chicago and Vega camps.

6/26: Looking at 6 guys, 1 SG, 3 SFs, 2 PFs, all Seniors, all except one with 2.1 GPA; the 6th is in state. Maybe eventually one or more will talk to me. If we get prospects there are guys on my roster I would love to switch to hardship scholarships (that is to say, dump).

7/11: Lots more kids at our camp this year. Looking forward to seeing what my team looks like.

7/25: Some great kids, and even 3-4 that we’ll keep an eye on for possible future recruiting. We made it a point to invite two of those baxck next year.
As to my guys, Clerq is our best, as he was last year. If we can get Rein eligible by next year he will probably be our go to.

We’ll rely on Lance Henry and Josh Slak at the guard spots this year, and we hope Al Holden will be ready up front, along with Greg Evans. Les Robin and Don Lepore are projected as the first guys off the bench, and we hope to get minutes from Glen Smid.

After that there isn’t much, hopefully Dirk Joel and Matt Moon can give us a few minutes here and there, and far less likely, Rod Boozer and Curt Camel.

Of course the exhibition games could change all of this. Dad flew in to join us for the two weeks and, as always, he was a tremendous help.

7/31: Not a single recruit has talked with me yet. Not much is likely to happen ‘til after SAT scores come out. I decide to take a grad level stats class. I miss my statistics. I can handle it, I've spoken with the instructor and he will make accommodations for my absences.

8/21: We decide, based on absolutely nothing, to offer to Tad Lang, a PF from Washington.

9/4: We’re deciding whether to spend money on home visits. We decide we will visit 4. There will be no second visits unless there is interest.

9/11: We make 2 visits since two others have committed (subject to hitting the SAT score, of course). We drop the instate kid because his GPA is 2.9 and he will hit the score for his school.

9/18: Hm. One of the two we visited is showing a bit of interest. We’re switching our offer to him and visiting again.

We have a schedule. No tourney, but we didn’t expect to be invited. We’re going with 3 star Wisconsin at home, two 1 stars and two 1 ½ stars. We have all 1 star teams on the road except for Michigan. I think it’s time to see what good teams look like, so 1 at home, 1 away.

So the sched. is just a wee bit more challenging this year. We aren’t ready to bump it up too far. So it’s 4 at home, then 3 on the road, then home, then away, then the conf. In conf. we play the better teams at home the 2nd time around, which is an advantage.

9/25: Watkins commits elsewhere so we switch our offer back to Lang.

10/2: First day of practice.

We’re picked 5th in conf. Hm, our goals are to finish in the top 3 and to win 15. I think we can do that, hell with the polls.

10/23: Josh Rein has been bringing his grades up. He’s at 2.7 now, which is great. We will NEED him next year.